1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to costumes having enlarged caricature heads and/or bodies of foam construction wherein an improved construction provides a lightweight, lifelike and durable costume construction that resists breakage and deterioration.
2. General Background
Costumes are often used in an artistic form that enlarges the head and/or body so that facial and other features, for example, are exaggerated. These types of costumes are commonly used in connection with advertising, plays, shows, sports events and the like.
Advertising often involves the use of costumes which might for example include a caricature, a personification, or other artistic rendition associated with a particular company's product. Frequently, radio stations, television stations and other business organizations use costumes in association with particular promotional events, or with advertising campaigns.
College and professional sports organizations frequently have mascots which are artistic caricatures, or fanciful cartoon-like characters many of which have very disproportionate and/or enlarged heads and or bodies as compared to the human body size and proportions. Costumes often use such personification to transform a company's product (such as a soft drink can) into a life like animated character.
When manufacturing a costume having a very large head portion, it is difficult to make the head very large as compared to typical human head because of the difficulty in supporting the head because of weight and size. Further, when lightweight materials are used in the formation of caricature or costume heads, a problem exists in that the material, while necessarily lightweight, also can be very fragile having a tendency to break, tear, rip or become damaged.
One of the problems of costumes, caricature heads and or puppet heads which are very large is that they can quickly wear and deteriorate if subjected to substantial use. This is true of both paper mache and foam which are commonly used in costume construction.
Some foam is an absorbant cellular material which absorbs liquids such as paint upon contact. Thus it is often difficult to work with foam in the creation of caricature heads, costumes and the like wherein it is desirable to first form the foam into a particular shape and then prevent those shapes from breaking off. For example, appendages of a human's head such as the nose, lips and ears have a tendency to tear or fall off when they are made with a foam material. The use of paints or other material on the foam creates a weight problem. Foam can be absorbent and the foam can soak up anything applied to it rendering the foam saturated and overweight. The foam can fall apart because it has become too heavy if extensive paint/liquids are absorbed.
Several patents have issued which relate to various constructions of costumes, caricatures, dolls and the like.
Early examples of costume patents include U.S. Pat. No. 2,028,206 entitled "Disguise" issued on Jan. 21, 1936 to W. A. Hall; U.S. Pat. No. 2,089,376 entitled "Inanimate Figure and Method of Making Same" issued Aug. 10, 1937 to E. Jacobson; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,124,767 entitled "Disguise Medium" issued on July 26, 1938 to J. W. Dawn.
Various patented constructions of plastic bodies use molds, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,541,192 and 3,852,389.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,541,192 entitled "Method of Producing Plastic Objects Having Smooth Skin Portions and Foamed Interior Portions" issued Nov. 17, 1970 to W. H. Shapero et al., providing a plastic base material having gas-releasing capability, is placed in a mold, which is subjected to a forced internal pressure change to control the timing of the release of the gas (to form the foamed interior portions of an object) while it is treated (as by heating a vinyl plastisol composition in the known rotocasting process) to form a smooth, soft skin and to complete formation of both the skin and interior portions.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,852,389 entitled "Method of Making Foam Plastic Bodies Having Lifelike Outer Skins" issued Dec. 3, 1974 to Adler et al., provides a method of making bodies of foamed plastic comprising filling a mold initially with a plastisol having a very small amount of blowing agent which will be activated, heating the mold to form a thin gelled layer of the plastisol covering the inner surface of the mold, then charging the mold with a second plastisol containing a significantly larger amount of blowing agent that will be activated; attaching the mold to a pressure release cap whereby the pressure in the mold can be controlled; then heating the mold at a temperature sufficient to release the blowing agents in the plastisol layers, while controllably releasing the gas from the mold through the pressure release cap. After cooling, the foamed body can then be removed from the mold.
U S. Pat. No. 4,451,933 entitled "Costume Mask Armature" issued June 5, 1984 to Seng et al., provides a universal costume mask armature is disclosed in which a rigid, preferably lattice, infrastructure including skull-shaped cranium and face portion is utilized. The face portion is preferably generally flattened and includes a pair of eye ports. A nose plate between the eye ports forms a continuation of the face and serves to receive and support nose features of a mask mounted on the armature. The face portion also includes a maxilary plate located below the nose plate to receive and support upper lip features of a mask. Use of this armature will enable a very wide range and variety of masks to be interchanged because the construction of the face portion of the armature is designed to support unlimited combinations of nose, eyebrows, beak etc. without regard to their weight or size.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,376 entitled "Animal Simulating Three Dimensional Archery Target and method of Manufacture" issued Jan. 21, 1986 to Croll provides and archery target wherein transversely gathered thermoplastic film is wrapped into the shape of an animal to be simulated, the wrapped shape is covered with thermoplastic sheeting heat sealed to the wrapped film, and the shape is filled with additional transversely gathered plastic film folded upon itself and inserted into the wrapped film shape.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,319 entitled "Image in Three Dimensions With Picture Covering and Forming System" issued Apr. 21, 1987 to Blair provides a three-dimensional image, which can be the face of a person, or other image having: a base, a picture module formed of flexible picture material bearing thereon a picture-making coating which latter is imprinted thereon in duplication from a photograph by known methods. the picture-module being attached to the forward side of the base and such forward side having a shape complementary to the picture coating as is accomplished by the method of this invention which is sculpting the material which makes the forward side of the base while such material is flexible and before heating it, the shaping of the moldable material being done by pressure exerted on and through the module as guided visually by the picture-making coating which latter can be accomplished by human sculpturing skill whereby the picture module is also sculpted into a new shape and complementary to the sculpted base.
The use of injection type molds to create a costume form over and over requires substantial initial expense which can only be justified if numerous costumes of the same configuration are desired. This does not solve the problem of creating custom costume masks, faces, bodies and the like where an inexpensive, workable system is desired to create lifelike and durable costume figures.